Saturday, 17 May 2014

Stand Up Guys is a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be.
Stuck somewhere between a geriatric sub Apatow production and 70s crime drama,
it’s lost perilously at sea with a precious cargo of acting royalty desperately
trying to steer around an iceberg. Despite pulling in the same direction, they
go down with the ship. The S.S. Good
Riddance. Directed by Fisher Stevens and penned by Noah Haidle, the film
has at its centre an interesting premise but tonally it’s all off beam.
Twenty-eight years after a job that went badly wrong, Valentine or “Val” to his
friends (Al Pacino) is released from prison and into the welcoming arms of his
former partner in crime Doc (Christopher Walken). Having served half a lifetime
after a stray bullet accidentally ended the life of their bosses only son, Val
is keen to make up for lost time, lost steak and lost sex. He’s acutely aware
however that his time is limited and is expecting a hit on behalf of his still
grieving boss. The bullet he’s expecting is due to be expelled by the gun
hidden in his old friend Doc’s pocket, something Val also suspects.

With Alan Arkin joining an
already illustrious cast and a premise that sets up so much, the film still
somehow disappoints. The comedy is absolutely dire and produced just one laugh
(admittedly a large one) in the entire 95 minute runtime. Time that could have
been spent creating dramatic tension or allowing the great actors to spit
thick, gloopy dialogue is instead devoted to nob gags and wave after wave of
“Oh aren’t we old” jokes. I don’t know who is supposed to be enjoying it. If
you’re young and have no love for the actors then it doesn’t work. If you’re
young and have a great affinity for the actors then it’s simply sad and
embarrassing and if you’re older then you just aren’t going to be interested in
the Viagra stealing, Russian prostitute visiting humour. This is a movie aimed
at fifteen year old fans of forty year old movies. A lot of movies have been
produced recently which try to put a twist on the frat boy comedy by
introducing an older cast but it’s just uncomfortable. Seeing Michael Corleone,
Sonny Wortzik, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, Frank Serpico, Tony Montana,
bloody Al ‘8 Oscar nominations and 1 win’ Pacino pretending to go to hospital
because he can’t get rid of an erection? No. Just stop it. Enough.

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

I watched Pain & Gain. I don’t know why I watched Pain & Gain but I did. I watched Pain & Gain. My favourite critic, Mark Kermode, ranked it as
his least favourite film of 2013 and I dislike the entire back catalogue of
director Michael Bay. But still I watched Pain & Gain. And do you know what?
It isn’t the worst film ever made. I don’t even think it’s the worst film of
2013. It isn’t however a very good film. It’s Pain & Gain. Michael
Bay’s Pain & Gain.

Based on true events, something
which the film ‘amusingly’ reminds the audience of after a particularly
unbelievable scene, Pain & Gain
is the story of body building jackass personal trainer Daniel Lugo (Mark
Wahlberg) who in 1994-5 along with two accomplices, successfully kidnapped and
extorted a Miami based businessman, taking all his money and possessions. After
months of living the high life, the trio decided to try their hand at a second
kidnapping but by this time the police were on their trail.

Thursday, 20 March 2014

It was only natural that I became
curious when I heard of a forthcoming film featuring the two super-heavyweights
of 80s action. As any man who grew up in the 90s can attest to, Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are part of my childhood. VHS copies of Commando or Cliffhanger might have been some of the first we owned and while
most of their output has aged even worse than the actors themselves, I still
get a little tingle at the thought of seeing them on screen. Escape Plan marks the pair’s first
appearance as co-stars although they were seen on screen together in Stallone’s
The Expendables. The pairing might
have come twenty years later than most fans would have liked but it certainly
draws more attention to this movie than it would have if only one man had
featured. Joining Arnie and Sly are the likes of Vinnie Jones and 50 Cent so Citizen Kane, watch out!

Stallone plays Ray Breslin, a man
who is paid by the US Government to break out of maximum security prisons; a
job he excels at. The movie opens with a long, dull sequence in which the
audience discovers just how good he is. He’s very good. He gets out. Although
he barely has time to change out of his prison jumpsuit, he’s offered double
his normal fee to break out of an undercover, off the grid, top, neigh,
super-duper top secret facility. He literally grunts at the chance and is soon
back inside. Immediately Breslin discovers that this is unlike any other jail
he’s seen before and when his emergency escape code is laughed off, he realises
he’s going to need all his skills (as well as fellow convict Emil Rottmayer –
Schwarzenegger) if he’s going to escape. Breslin develops a plan – an Escape Plan.

Sunday, 16 February 2014

Wadjda, a German-Saudi Arabian co-production was one of the films I
missed last year which I most wanted to catch up with. The first feature film
shot entirely in the KSA and the first to be directed by a Saudi woman, Wadjda was a film which I had hoped
would wipe away my preconceived ideas about a nation I know little about.
Unfortunately it acted to strengthen those ideas and actually add to them. It
is however a thought provoking movie with a lot of heart and allows a glimpse
behind the curtain and into a rarely seen land.

Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) is a
sprightly and industrious eleven year old girl living in Riyadh. It’s her dream to own a green bicycle
which she spots in a local shop but more than that, she dreams of the freedom
which would accompany owning the bike. Constricted by rules and religion,
Wadjda is a rebel, wearing Converse trainers and listening to foreign pop
music, she’s often at her School Principle’s office or causing her equally
troubled mother concern. In order to earn the money for her prized bicycle,
Wadjda enters a Koran reciting competition for which she studies (ahem)
religiously.

Saturday, 1 February 2014

Last summer, the film After Earth was labelled as rubbish by
the vast majority of critics. They were all wrong, it’s much worse than that. After Earth came from a story idea by
Will Smith which was fleshed out into a feature length screenplay by M. Night
Shyamalan and Gary Whitta. The movie was directed by Shyamalan and was produced
by and starred Will Smith and his son Jaden. The film gives its audience so
little to enjoy that it’s almost offensive and provides none of the action or
comedy that we have come to expect from a Will Smith fronted movie.

Set in the distant future,
humanity now resides on the planet Nova Prime with the Earth abandoned. A
thousand years after their arrival on their new home, the planet is invaded by
aliens (irony alert) who wish to destroy our species and conquer the planet.
Their primary weapon is the Ursa; a large, blind predator that is able to smell
human fear. One man, General Cypher Raige (Will Smith) has the ability to
‘ghost’ – be free of fear and as such invisible to the Ursa. His son Kitai
(Jaden Smith) is a Ranger Cadet who has hopes of replicating his father’s
talents. The two are somewhat estranged but Cypher takes his son on a training
mission which inadvertently crash lands on Earth, home to numerous deadly
creatures as well as an Ursa on the loose.

Friday, 24 January 2014

January 25th 2014 marks the second birthday of this blog and following on from last year, I've again chosen the day before this anniversary as the day to post my Top 10 films of the previous year. The extra month from December has given me the chance to catch up on some of the cinematic releases I missed earlier in the year as well as see some of this year's crop of Oscar nominated films. I saw a lot fewer films in 2013 than in 2012, partly thanks to a new job and partly because of a mid year blip during which I briefly lost the love of writing and subsequently watched fewer movies. Nevertheless I saw a total of 271 films of which 94 were eligible to be included on this list. (Last year's numbers were 391 & 100). To be included, I had to see a film that was released in UK cinemas between 25/01/13 and 24/01/14. Because of the slightly odd timing for an end of year list and crappy cinema release dates in the UK, a few of last year's Oscar nominated films were eligible for this list and films such as Her, Dallas Buyers Club and Inside Llewn Davis, which haven't been released yet cannot be included. The films below begin at my 10th favourite of the year, progressing to my favourite and I've also included my girlfriend's top 5 for a female/weirdo perspective. There's no bottom 5 this year because I didn't see enough of the truly awful films. As always, click on a film's title for a full review (if I wrote one).

10. Rush. As a huge Formula One fan I had my doubts about an American director taking on one of the sport's most fierce rivalries but Ron Howard captured the two personalities of Hunt and Lauda brilliantly. He also captured the speed, danger and to some extent noise associated with the sport as well as the grease and glamour that accompanies it. As a fan of the sport, I felt that the film stayed true to the routes of the story yet entertained and my girlfriend was enraptured by the movie as much as I was despite only enjoying the sport for Jenson Button's face. The movie looks great and sounds incredible while it allowed one of my favourite actors, Daniel Bruhl to give a fantastic performance that helped him reach a larger audience than ever before.

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Aningaaq is a short companion piece to the award winning Gravity that was written and directed by
Jonás Cuarón, son of Alfonso Cuarón. I should make it clear right away that
this review will feature spoilers so if you haven’t seen Gravity then you may not wish to continue. Have you left? Good. Aningaaq is a seven minute short that
shows a scene in Gravity from the
reverse angle. Having given up aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, Dr. Ryan Stone
(Sandra Bullock) begins to receive a faint radio transmission. Initially
believing it to originate from a Chinese Space Station, she soon realises it’s
in fact coming from Earth. This film shows us the other side of the
conversation the two people have; Stone, miles above Earth on the verge of
death and Aningaaq, an Inuit
fisherman on a frozen fjord.

Aningaaq begins with a long, slow panning shot which depicts the
inhospitable icy surroundings in which the Inuit fisherman finds himself
living. This connects beautifully with the story of Gravity in that both characters are separated from their species by
many miles and life snatching surroundings. Both films share the same eerie
silence, further promoting the idea of bleakness and exposure. Unlike the
blackness of space though, Aningaaq is shown in a near white out, the exact
opposite of Dr. Stone.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

I first saw the multi award
winning Gravity in November last year
during my non writing phase but it’s a film that I felt I needed to see again. Gravity is a game changer as far as
visual effects are concerned and it appears to have re-written the rule book
for films set in space. So over two months and $675 million at the box office after
its initial release, I was able to take in the film’s awesome effects once more
in stunning 3D. I’ll be honest, I never expected to use the words ‘stunning’
and ‘3D’ in the same sentence but Gravity
is the first film I’ve seen for which 3D was the right choice and actually
added something to the movie.

Rather than working on a two
dimensional plane as most films do, Gravity
has a full 360 degree scope to work within. The camera is able to, and expected
to move around the entire scene, not limited by space or ironically gravity.
The use of 3D is completely justified and adds immeasurably to the feeling of
floating as well as helps to place the film in its environment. The opening
scene of an astronaut moving around a shuttle with wanton ease is spectacular
and things only get better from there. Thousands if not millions of tiny pieces
of satellite erupt in a magnificent burst high above the earth and set off
complex chain reactions which are visually stunning as well as incredibly
frightening.

Saturday, 18 January 2014

The charm attributed to Disney’s
latest feature animation is something that has passed me by. Exhibiting little
originality in story, art or character, Frozen
is nonetheless a double Oscar nominated film. Loosely based on Hans Christian
Anderson’s The Snow Queen, this is a
classic tale of Disney princesses overcoming adversity, finding happiness
through hard work, perseverance and love. Following a typical first act
tragedy, Princesses Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) are left alone
in their Scandinavian castle. Though formerly very close, Elsa’s ability to
create ice and snow from her fingertips is considered a danger to others and
she hides away for years until she’s old enough to ascend the throne. Soon
disaster strikes and the Kingdom is plunged into icy darkness while Elsa
absconds to the mountains to lead a hermit like life. This leaves her younger
sister Anna to bring her back and save the Kingdom from ruin.

I have to admit that I found very
little to like in Frozen. I was bored
by the predictable storyline and disliked the musical theatre style songs. The
one ray of sunshine though in this otherwise cold film was the character of
Olaf the snowman. One of the best Disney characters in years, everything Olaf
says and does is funny or sweet and he brightened up what was otherwise a dull
102 minutes.

Friday, 17 January 2014

A feel good sleeper hit, Good Vibrations is based on the life of Belfast’s godfather of
punk Terri Hooley. Set during the 1970s and 80s with civil war raging across Northern Ireland,
Hooley set himself apart from the political and religious fighting by opening a
record shop in the troubled capital. Maintaining neutrality and encouraging the
same, he drew people from both sides together through their shared love of
music before becoming an instrumental figure in the burgeoning punk scene with
Good Vibrations Records, a small label that signed the likes of Rudi, The
Outcasts and The Undertones.

Good Vibrations didn’t get a huge release back in March 2013 and it
deserves more attention that it’s been getting since. It’s a charming, funny
and engaging film which put a smile on my face and helped me look beyond Belfast’s infamous past.

Sunday, 12 January 2014

Get a Horse! Is a dazzling and enchanting Disney animated short
that was featured prior to the feature length film Frozen in cinemas. Wonderfully mixing antique and modern animation
it’s a feast for the eyes and a reminder of how good Disney once was and what
it’s capable of today. Directed by Lauren MacMullen, the first woman to solo
direct a Disney film, it takes inspiration from Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr with its stepping through
the screen antics.

The plot follows the typical type
of early Mickey Mouse short. Using hand drawn, black and white animation,
Mickey is enjoying a musical wagon ride with Minnie Mouse when they are pounced
upon by the wicked Peg-Leg Pete in his automobile. Spying Minnie, Pete attempts
to steal her from our hero and drive off into the sunset with her as his prize.
Following a brief fight, Mickey and his steed Horace are literally pushed
through the cinema screen and become bold, brightly coloured modern versions of
themselves. Hilarity then ensues as the fight goes back and forth between monochrome
and colour, old and new.

I thought this film was
incredibly witty and inventive. Initially I assumed the short was a re-release
of an old classic and had no idea that the characters were about to be launched
into the 21st Century. The traditional black and white animation is
exquisite and the soundtrack is excellent to match. I’m not as much a fan of
the newer style but that might just be my old codger-ness coming through.
Throughout its seven minute runtime, the film was drawing laughs from young and
old in the cinema and was hopefully introducing the younger members of the
audience to the wonderful older style of animation. The score is bouncy and
full of brass and made my feet bop along from start to finish while it also makes use of archive audio to capture the real voices of Walt Disney, Marcellite Garner and Billy Bletcher, all long deceased. This really is a
wonderful Disney short, the best I’ve seen in ages.

Saturday, 11 January 2014

The Look of Love is a 2013 biopic of Paul Raymond, a self made man
dubbed ‘The King of Soho’ thanks to his enormous property empire which included
numerous clubs, bars, strip clubs and theatres. Branching out later to
pornographic magazines he became Britain’s wealthiest man in 1992
with an estimated worth of £650 million. The film takes us back to his
beginnings as a small time entertainer who hit upon the idea of a private
gentlemen’s club in which naked women would appear in live shows, something
that was previously banned in the UK. From here the movie charts his
rise, reaching the dizzy heights of drug addled fame before crashing down to
personal disaster.

Behind the camera is Michael
Winterbottom, a man capable of producing excellent work (24 Hour Party People, Trishna,
The Trip) while his frequent
collaborator Steve Coogan takes on the role of Raymond. The film features some
delicious period detail and more naked women than you could shake a stick at so
why did I find it all so dull?

Despite the lavish interior sets
and attention to detail in costume and hair (both collar and cuffs), the film
never grabbed me. I was extremely bored throughout and never really cared about
any of the characters. Paul Raymond is a smooth talking self publicist who
spends the film going from one gorgeous woman to another while his daughter
Debbie (Imogen Poots) is portrayed as a spoiled, talentless daddy’s girl.
Neither are particularly fun to be around and despite Coogan injecting a bit of
humour into Raymond, I never missed them when they weren’t on screen. Raymond’s
life was either not interesting or the film made it feel so. Considering he was
a philandering, multi millionaire who owned Soho,
I fear it’s the latter.

Sunday, 5 January 2014

The Act of Killing is a remarkable and stomach churning documentary
that allows several mass murders to tell the story of their crimes in their own
words and through dramatic re-enactments. Following a US backed military coup
that resulted in a decades long, right wing dictatorship, somewhere in the
region of 500,000 to 2.5 million Indonesians and ethnic Chinese were killed at
the hands of Government backed ‘gangsters’ and paramilitaries. Today, nearly
half a century later there has been no apology for these heinous crimes and
many of the murders are revered as heroes. This film focuses on several of the
now ageing killers.

The film is unlike any
documentary I’ve seen before. It avoids the bias that inevitably accompanies a
documentary feature by allowing the perpetrators to give their own account, in
their own words. The director and occasional questioner Joshua Oppenheimer
avoids leading questions, instead asking the occasional question that’s on all
our minds and allowing those interviewed to answer and elaborate if they feel
necessary. Luckily for us the viewer, they often do. Another thing that makes
this film stand out is that its ‘stars’ are given carte blanch to re-enact
their evil deeds with a full camera crew, make-up, professional lighting and
even prosthetics. It makes for chilling viewing.

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

Already attracting awards buzz
and with seven Golden Globe nominations to its name, David O. Russell’s American Hustle is one of the early
showers from this year’s awards season. Set in the late 1970s and making use of
an ensemble cast plucked from his most recent productions, the film is set in
the world of an experienced and successful con artist called Irving Rosenfeld
(Christian Bale). Irving and his partner Sydney (Amy Adams) are caught by
cocksure and ambitious FBI Agent Richard DiMasso (Bradley Cooper) who offers
immunity in exchange for help in capturing more prized targets.

The plot isn’t a strong area of American Hustle which is why I’m
surprised its screenplay has received many of the film’s plaudits. Although it
spirals seemingly uncontrollably into deeper recesses of confusion, subterfuge
and double cross, it features a sagging belly larger than that sported by Bale
and drags on for too long before reaching its always expected conclusion. The
movie’s strengths lie elsewhere, primarily in the design and acting, two areas
for which the film deserves all the plaudits its being given.

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is an
average Joe New Yorker, working for Time Magazine. His life is dull, bland and
listless. He lacks the adventure and excitement that he secretly craves and
frequently day dreams, putting himself in exhilarating and romantically
fulfilling positions. As news is announced that Time Magazine is to close,
Walter is sent a roll of film from hunky adventure photographer Sean O’Connell
(Sean Penn) who asks Walter to make sure that a particular photograph of his is
considered for the final cover. The problem is that Sean’s photo never arrived
and inspired by a secret love for a new co-worker, Walter breaks free of the
shackles of everyday tedium and sets out to track down the illusive
photographer not letting oceans, mountains or implausibility stop him.

It’s no coincidence that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
was released here in the UK
on Boxing Day, being as it is the perfect film to uplift its target audience
from their overly full, post Christmas slump. Like a bland Christmas turkey, it’s
the sort of film that comes around once a year at the festive period and even
though it isn’t as exciting as venison or lobster, you eat it because it’s the
time of year that you’re meant to. There isn’t lots of nourishment and if you’re
honest, it’s quite dry but you let it slide because there’s also cranberry
sauce on your plate. But wait a minute, there is no cranberry sauce, there’s
Ben Stiller and he’s shoving another fork full of turkey down your throat. Eat
the turkey. Eat it.

Friday, 27 December 2013

As my second year of film blogging draws to a close, I thought today was a good day to look back on some of the best films I've seen this year. Ahead of my 'Best of 2013' list which I'll publish in late January on my blog's two year anniversary, the list below is of the top ten 'new to me' films of the year. The list is taken from all of the films I've seen this year for the first time which weren't released in 2013.

Although I've seen a lot fewer films this year than last (278 as of 27th December, compared to over 365 at the same point in 2012), I believe that this list features comparatively better films than last year's.

10. Wings 1927. The first winner of what became Best Picture at the Oscars, Wings is a romantic drama that stands the test of time. Engaging leads and technical wizardry made it feel fresher and easier to watch than many films from the same period. Clara Bow's performance and the aerial photography are amongst the many highlights of this late period silent feature.

Sunday, 22 December 2013

It’s been a few weeks now since I
saw Nebraska, Alexander Payne’s monochrome
comedy-drama and I didn’t originally intend to write about it. But of all the
films I’ve seen in the last couple of months, it’s the one that has stayed with
me the longest. Nebraska stars Bruce Dern as Woody, a
grouchy old man whose moments of lucidity are swamped by his seemingly frail
mind. Woody receives a sweepstakes letter which tells him of a million dollar
prize win which he is determined to collect in person. Despite warnings from
his family that the prize is bogus, Woody is undeterred and eventually his son
David (Will Forte) agrees to drive across country to Lincoln, Nebraska
with his father to pick up the winnings. Along the way the pair stops in
Woody’s small hometown where he reconnects with the past.

At this late stage in 2013, Nebraska
stands as one of the best films I’ve seen all year. It’s an absolute delight,
merging neo-realism with caricature in a way that I’ve rarely witnessed before.
It manages to be both grounded but quirky, serious and flippant and focuses in
the everyday side of America
rarely featured in Hollywood films. The
characters don’t moan about money while living in mansions or complain about
their dream jobs, these are Middle Americans, dealing with normal issues and I
couldn’t take my eyes off the screen.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was one of those rarest of
comedies, a film that gets funnier the more you watch it and one that has so
many quotable lines that you’d laugh yourself silly before running out while reciting
them with friends. Like Airplane! and
This is Spinal Tap! it was a film
that you could introduce to friends and watch them fall in love with and watch
on a loop without getting bored. As a nineteen year old in 2004, that’s how my
friends and I saw it anyway. In the years since, the film’s star Ron Burgundy
(Will Ferrell) has made occasional appearances in adverts and the like as well
as a, let’s be honest, poor and straight to DVD Wake Up Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie which was compiled using left
over footage from the first movie. Now though, nearly a decade later the famous
New Team has finally assembled for a much anticipated two hour sequel.

I have an odd love/hate
relationship with Will Ferrell. Sometimes he seems like the funniest guy in the
world and his comic creations slay me. More than half the time though, he
really annoys me. In Anchorman his
Ron Burgundy character was always the former of these two Ferrells’ but
unfortunately for long periods in Anchorman
2 I found his greatest creation not just annoying but also dull. Annoying
and dull are two words that I’d also use to describe the film as a whole. That
being said, it is not without its moments and most of these come flying from
the gaping mouth of Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), the man who saves the movie.

Sunday, 8 December 2013

Anyone who knows me personally or
has read my review of Park Chan-wook’s 2003 revenge thriller Oldboy will be aware that the Korean
film is one of my favourite movies of this young century. Its initial success
and cult status in the West meant it was only a matter of time before a Hollywood remake reached the cinema. Talk of a Steven
Spielberg-Will Smith project came and went and instead, ten years after the
original, we’re hit squarely in the face with Spike Lee’s Oldboy, a sanitised and surprisingly safe American version. The
film is based on the Korean movie rather than the original Japanese Manga but
contains subtle and often baffling differences.

The story is of Joe Doucett (Josh
Brolin). Doucett is a man on the verge of losing his job, a man who spends too
much time with the bottle and not enough time with his wife and young daughter.
Following a heavy night of drinking he awakens in what appears to be a motel
room. It soon becomes apparent that his ‘room’ is in fact a cell, a cell in which
he will spend the next twenty years of his life locked up for a reason that he
cannot fathom. While incarcerated Joe is framed for his wife’s murder and sees
his young daughter adopted. Inexplicably after two decades Joe is released and
given the task of working out who kept him prisoner and why he was framed for
the grizzly murder of his wife.

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Rush, the latest offering from director Ron Howard, is an
exhilarating and dramatic biographical action movie set in the glamorous world
of the 1970s Formula One driver. Being a fairly faithful retelling of true
events, the movie focuses on the careers of and rivalry between Austria’s Nikki
Laura (Daniel Bruhl) and Britain’s James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) in the mid
1970s during which the pair were the cream of the motor racing world. Though
the movie begins in 1970, the main thrux of the plot is the 1976 F1 season
during which the pair’s rivalry and willingness to put themselves in the path
of danger reached an all time high before the season reached a dramatic climax
in Japan.

I need to mention very early on
that personally I’m a huge fan of Formula One and have only missed around three
races since my first in 1994. I love the history, the strategy and the
technology of the sport and would rank it amongst my biggest passions. Because
of this I was worried that my judgement of the film would be clouded but I’m
confident that the film is good enough that my love of its backdrop hasn’t
affected my enjoyment. In many ways the movie reminded me of the sublime BAFTA
award winning documentary Senna in
that although both movies are about F1 and F1 drivers, they could be about
anything. It’s the story and characters who make both films great. They could
be set within any discipline.